If you’ve never heard of Paladin Press, you need to read this and even if you have, it’s a cool walk down memory lane. I can’t believe it’s almost as old as me. Congrats guys from a long time customer amd fan!
In 1970, Peder Lund joined Robert Brown as a partner in a book-publishing venture previously known as Panther Publications. Lund and Brown later changed the name of the venture to Paladin Press to avoid misidentification with the then-active and highly publicized Black Panther movement. As former military men (both served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army’s Special Forces) and adventurers, Lund and Brown were convinced there was a market for books on specialized military and action/adventure topics. Both men also firmly believed that the First Amendment guaranteed Americans the right to read about whatever subjects they desired, and this became the cornerstone of Paladin’s publishing philosophy.
From 1970 to 1974, Paladin developed its stock of titles primarily by reprinting government military manuals previously available to the public only through purchase of purloined copies. In 1974, Lund and Brown split over the direction the company should take. Lund wanted to expand Paladin’s coverage of topics, while Brown wanted to start a magazine. Lund bought out Brown, who founded Soldier of Fortune magazine (SOF) in 1975.
After acquiring full ownership in Paladin, Lund started branching out beyond military subjects to topics he felt were right for the times. As the interests of the public changed over the years, Paladin’s topics expanded to include survival and self-reliance, identity change, private investigation, espionage, personal freedom, action careers, lock picking, covert surveillance and countersurveillance, explosives, knives and knife fighting, sniping, martial arts, self-defense, and police science. Although some topics fell out of favor after a period, others have remained popular.
In some areas, such as with firearm silencers and electronic eavesdropping, Paladin led the way by publishing the first works available to the public. Some of the books dealt with—but did not advocate employing—potentially illegal activities. These generated a lot of controversy—and sales.
Circumstances and changing times have caused Paladin to scale back publishing some of the more controversial material it had been known for in the past. After the settlement of the Hit Man lawsuit in 1999 and the passage of legislation making it legally treacherous to distribute information on explosives, the company stopped publishing some 80 titles on explosives, demolitions, improvised weaponry, and self-defense.
Even after 45 years in business, Lund still strives to provide readers with quality books on a variety of interesting and unusual topics. He seeks out authors who are knowledgeable in their fields and encourages them to write for his audience. Many authors are well-known experts in their fields: Kelly McCann and Lee Morrison on all aspects of close-quarters combat, John Plaster on military and police sniping, Ragnar Benson on survivalism and emergency preparedness, and many other authors with decades of personal experience in their fields.
In September, Paladin will celebrate its 45th year in business. Because we could not have done this without you, our loyal customers, we’re having a giant sale to say thank-you. For the next few days, choose anything in our Action Library and take 45 percent off everything. No exclusions, no minimum requirements, no hassles. Use promotion code PALADIN45 at checkout to take advantage of this offer. This offer ends August 25, 2015, at 12:00 PM ET.
Click the link below to shop now.
www.paladin-press.com/?p=PALADIN45
